Families matter in revival.

I have seen a lot of amazing things in revival. I have seen the miracles, the signs, the wonders and all types of the miraculous. However, I am convicted that more than ever that family is critical to where things are going.

To be clear, I am not talking about church family and this is not a call to community article. This is a call to remember our families. The family unit is often put on the altar and consumed.

I have my own story on how I let a combination of hunger for revival, personal sin and attacks from the enemy on the family rip apart my own. I have never really walked into the mantle on my life since as a result. The story is not unique, sadly.

I know many people who have lost their families that was burning for revival in the days of Brownsville. Divorce is never the answer but it seems it has become the norm. It grieves me as a prophetic voice.

I did not realize until recently just how limited I was in my anointing by the complete disregard I had for people God has put in my life to call family. The Holy Spirit has convicted me about how we see our families and I believe that this is not unique to me.

Don’t leave your family behind

I have been a lot of things: intercessor, prophetic voice, mission guy, and evangelist. One thing I have not done is make sure my family was with me to rejoice in the victories and weep in the defeats. This is wrong and this is something that the Holy Spirit is about to convict people of en masse in the revival circles. It has to stop.

Many of us talk, pray for, believe for, and preach about revival and complete ignore the pains at home. My journey is one that led to personal sin. I was doing things that were sinful in order to justify being in revival meetings and prayer services. Pretty twisted but that is what happened.

Of course, I believed that I was not the one to blame. I was the one called to preach…in my mind. I was the guy in the prayer meeting. I was the guy doing evangelism. She just wasn’t spiritual enough was my attitude. I was complete wrong too.

Like many, I have justified losing my family with all the right verses and language of the church. I had some people around me that actually supported my attitude. These were people with ministries too. (Oddly, most of them are divorced today).

Just like me, many of them can’t say they were warned. I had prophet after prophet confront me about it. I know all the right words to pacify them. I can count at least 13 prophetic voices that told me to change course.

The truth is that we can not go where God wants to go and do things in the Holy Spirit like we need to without our families.

Writing on the wall

In 2016, I had something happen. Ministry came to a stop and I found myself on the foreign field. A prophet that I did not know told me about this very issue. I point blank told him he was out of his mind.

Shortly after, I had the largest attack against me start and went on for over 2 years. I felt the presence of God completely lift off me and the anointing was not doing it anymore. Limited success happen simply because God honors the Word.

During this time, the word of the Lord came to me very rarely. I can only remember twice times between the day and February 13, 2019. One of them was very controversial. (November 2017) The other was a direct prophetic word to Paul Cain. (August 2017)

In this time, I did some really out of line things that was more like the Peter before I was saved than a man of revival. The heavens seem brass, I was letting my life fly out of control, and trusting in my own strengths and ability; I had a serious medical problem. I had no choice but to come back to the United States.

In 2016, the unknown prophet was the final word from a voice until recently. If I would have discerned him properly, I would have been in the States in late 2016; not early 2018.

Then February 13, 2019 happened

I was walking asking God to send revival because it is the one thing I burn for and how much longer until we see true Stadium Christianity. (Oddly, Paul Cain has passed away just hours before this) I knew that I was born for revival in the United States. I have prayed for, preached it and prophesied about it since 1998.

What happened next is something that I completely did not expect. You have to understand, I had not given the family a thought in years. Nowhere in my heart was anything connected to them. The Holy Spirit had other plans and He had on His agenda something else.

Right there in the mountains of the Appalachians, the Holy Spirit was confronting me. It was not some prophet that I could say was in the flesh or just missed God. It was God himself dealing with me very directly.

God told me very plainly that I was to stop everything I was doing, cancel everything I had planned, and focus on healing the people I had hurt in the name of revival over the years. The top of the list was family.

Confirmations came from everywhere. I am not talking one or two but over 15 different confirmations happened in the course of a week. Prophecies, words of knowledge, prophetic dreams, and several people coming to be feeling something was happening.

It is not like I have my family with me today (I don’t!). However, God got my attention in a major way and I know I should have not blown off all the prophetic words and words of knowledge for 15 years. Listening to people who own marriages was a wreck was pretty dumb too!

Families matter, Revivalists!

What I described is how God tried to get my attention for over a decade about something much more important to Him that it was to me. God does not cover up sin but covers sin with grace.

There was sin that caused the breakdown (no denial of that), it was my sin that kept thing broken and it was my ego just drove the knife deeper and twisted it harder.

I feel very strongly that prophets and evangelists need to make sure things are right between them and their families. The scriptures makes them clear that our anointing is dependent on it.

Husbands, in the same way be considerate as you live with your wives, and treat them with respect as the weaker partner and as heirs with you of the gracious gift of life, so that nothing will hinder your prayers. (1 Peter 3:7)

Let’s see revival sweep the nation and destroy the works of the devil in this country but let’s do it with our families supporting us and standing with us. I promise you that will you need strong families for what is coming. They are the rock it all comes down.

Our lamps are lit. Our oil is burning. Our hearts are burning for the Bridegroom. We will watch. We will wait for that day. However, I firmly believe doing it without families is important.

Make sure you hug your family and make sure they know they are valued and that they are not second to the coming revival. Don’t wait until you have something as manageable as emptying out all the city’s funeral homes (like I have!)